House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez and Tingog Party-list Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez on Sunday said the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing center in Tacloban City will boost the country’s fight against the spread of the virus, especially in Eastern Visayas.
The Romualdez couple also thanked the country’s health officials led by Health Sec. Francisco Duque III for accrediting as COVID-19 screening center the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban City.
“From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much Sec. Duque and other health officials for the robust support that your group has been extending to our team. The good work will continue to ensure the health and safety of the Filipino people, especially in Region VIII,” the Romualdezes said in a statement.
“We can now help ourselves with our capability to handle the screening for COVID-19. This is a very crucial key in managing, containing and flattening the curve of COVID-19 infections,” they added.
In a related development, Quezon City Rep. Precious Castelo on Sunday urged the Department of Health to require all hospitals and other healthcare facilities to subject their frontline workers to weekly Covid-19 test. “I am suggesting that we should have our healthcare workers undergo screening every week for early detection of the virus, since they are exposed to it in the hospitals. Early detection means early isolation, containment and cure,” she said
Castelo said weekly testing would prevent infected healthcare personnel from spreading the virus to co-workers, friends, family, and other persons.
“Let us invest in regular screening, which should not cost much especially if done by laboratories owned by the national government and local government units, and the Red Cross. Early detection also means less cost in the future for treatment, which Philhealth pays for,” she said.
Castelo made the appeal after receiving complaints from some frontline personnel of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City that they were last tested for Covid-19 three weeks ago.
The complaining personnel said they were told to undergo the screening after a co-workers tested positive for the virus. That was their first and last Covid-19 test. After that, they said they were surprised to read a news report that NKTI director Dr. Rosemarie Rosete-Liquete had admitted in a television interview that 23 frontline workers of the hospital had tested positive for the virus.
Jude Acide, Tingog second nominee, said that “the strongest boost to the project was when Reps. Martin Romualdez and Yedda Romualdez readily agreed to purchase from their personal funds the needed RT PCR machine for the testing center.”
The Romualdezes also said that the lack of testing centers may have caused the underreporting of COVID-19 cases that has been clogging up the already overloaded hospitals in the country.
The early detection of potential COVID-19 cases will help address the fear that the growing health crisis may overwhelm the healthcare facilities, they said.
“This testing center will promptly identify and respond to any potential COVID-19 case which will help our campaign to curb the spread of the virus,” the Romualdez couple said.
In a letter dated May 8, Health Assistant Secretary Nestor Santiago, COVID-19 Laboratory Operations Team Lead Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, certified the fitness of the Molecular Laboratory of the EVRMC to conduct testing for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, testing of Tacloban City’s medical personnel will begin today, Monday.
According to the Romualdezes, the initial screening of 90 swab samples will help increase their daily tests to 700, even as they wished them “good luck.”
The Romualdez couple said they were impressed by the medical personnel’s projection to increase the screening center’s daily testing capacity to 300 to 700 swab samples soon.
“We wish the best of luck and we are praying hard for the safety and.good health of everyone as our medical team embarks on a very crucial mission of strengthening our COVID-19 fight,” said the Romualdez couple following Sunday’s blessing of the EVRMC Molecular Laboratory.
“With the Eastern Visayas Regional COVID-19 testing center, we have significantly increased our capability to address COVID-19. Mass testing of suspected cases will now be a more doable strategy. With the right and accurate baseline information, we are now more capable of preventing the further spread of COVID-19 and of carrying out a more calibrated and responsive public health care strategy for the region,” the Romualdez couple said.
Beginning this Monday, the EVRMC will process and conduct COVID-19 detection RT-PRC tests for suspected cases in Eastern Visayas.
“This is a very important step in our collective efforts to contain, treat and flatten the curve of the coronavirus disease pandemic,” the Romualdezes said.